crappy computer issues/frame rate so slow that my character runs slower

[pharmakos]

i play on a crappy Acer netbook.... only 1 gig of RAM and its running Windows 7... performance of EQ is pretty bad... my character runs slower because of the crappy framerate (people always ask me if i'm encumbered or if i have Walk clicked on, its embarassing =p).

any possible solutions outside of upgrading my RAM? i've debated installing Windows XP (so the OS uses up less RAM), but i can only afford a pirated version of XP and i'd rather not go that route.

i use Spybot to keep my PC clear of resource-hogging spyware. i usually close out any background programs while playing EQ.

i use EQPlayNice.

[gotrocks]

Not sure what eq placenice is..

but.

adding a gig of ram wont help u that much. windows 7 isnt *that* much more ram intensive than xp.

your best bet is messing.with the graphics settings in eq. there are a *lot* of options to play with there. turn off sky, lower max fps etc. you will find something that works.

[Nuncio]

i play on a crappy Acer netbook.... only 1 gig of RAM and its running Windows 7... performance of EQ is pretty bad... my character runs slower because of the crappy framerate (people always ask me if i'm encumbered or if i have Walk clicked on, its embarassing =p).

any possible solutions outside of upgrading my RAM? i've debated installing Windows XP (so the OS uses up less RAM), but i can only afford a pirated version of XP and i'd rather not go that route.

i use Spybot to keep my PC clear of resource-hogging spyware. i usually close out any background programs while playing EQ.

i use EQPlayNice.

Model of laptop?
You shouldnt be running less than 4gb of ram on a win7 system. You are using the swap file probably pretty much constantly. XP with SP3 needs at least 2.

Get more memory, and as gotrocks says, lower your graphcis settings to their absolute minimum.

[pharmakos]

its an Acer Aspire One D255 NETBOOK

CPU is an Intel Atom N450 (1.66GHz, 512kB cache)

i haven't looked at prices for Netbook sized RAM sticks, but i assume they're pretty pricy. i have a pretty limited budget.

grapics settings are mostly at the minimum. haven't tried turning the Sky off. gonna try a few more things tonight and report back.

maybe i should increase the size of my page file? used to be pretty computer savvy 10 years ago, but am rusty these days...

[gotrocks]

Definitely turn sky off. There are a large number of graphic options in EQ, if you turn them all to the minimum, you should see an increase in performance.

(You actually don't have to turn the sky all the way off, but use the lowest setting without turning it off)

Didn't realize you had a netbook... that's your main problem. Theres two issues with netbooks;

1) it can be difficult to find cheap ram for them. I'd try looking online. I know that some netbooks cannot be upgraded *at all* without serious work, but an acer should be an easy swap

2) the graphics card is usually absolute shit. Thats the main thing they sacrifice for their small size. Your onboard graphics card is going to be total garbage. That being said, you should still be able to play functionally by turning everything down.

Also, make sure your computer has minimal processes running in the background. The best way to do this is to press windows key + r to open the run command. Type msconfig and hit enter. This will bring up a window with a bunch of settings with tabs at the top. Click startup. This will give a list of startup processes that i can guarantee you didn't even know were running. you can un-check almost everything on this list, virtually nothing here is essential. Once you have a minimal number of things launching at startup, click ok and restart.

Upon restart, you will get a dialogue saying your settings have been changed. just click ok (or whatever is there, I don't remember specifics) and you're set. Your computer should bootup much faster now as well.

Lastly, to squeeze every last bit of power out of your computer, click the start menu. Right click "computer" and it will open a system menu. Click "advanced system settings". This will bring up a system properties menu. Click the 'advanced' tab (it should already be selected, but if not, click it). Next to 'performance', click settings. Under the 'visual effects' tab, click the 'adjust for best performance' circle. This will uncheck all the boxes. Windows wont look quite as nice, but its really not that big of a deal, and it will give you a *huge* increase in overall performance. I do this on every single one of my computers regardless of power. Its a great way to squeeze out every ounce of your laptops power.

Now click the 'advanced' tab. Make sure that under 'adjust for best performance' you have programs selected, not the background processes. Underneath that, you should see Virtual memory. Click change. Select custom size. Change this to something you feel is appropriate. Mine is currently set to 5000-5000 with 2gb of ram. You can also let the system manage the size if you so choose.

Once you've done all this, restart, then go back into EQ and fiddle with the graphics settings. If you turn everything down as low as possible, you should be fine. There's no reason why your laptop shouldnt be able to run EQ. If you've followed all these steps to the letter (especially turning off all or most of your startup programs) you should be fine. If you *still* can't run eq well, I would honestly say fuck getting more ram, and just save 200 bucks and buy a cheap desktop box. Even the most basic of desktop PC's will be able to run EQ just fine.

Also, what is EQPlay nice? I'd look it up, but I'm lazy and would rather have it explained :)

[gotrocks]

I added this to the tech FAQ, so hopefully people will be able to check that thread in the future for info instead of having to wait for an answer.

[Nuncio]

I gotta say, even on my laptop with an SSD and 4gb of ram, it has only the integrated core i5 graphics, and playing at 1366x768, I have to turn down EVERYTHING, and it's still crap FPS. This persons built in video is seriously about 1/8th the ability of the one on my laptop. I just don't know how good it can get.

[gotrocks]

I'm playing on an old ass dell with windows 7, 2 gigs of ram, integrated graphics on a intel core solo (far worse integrated graphics than the one with the i5), and as long as i have everything set up correctly, I can run at a smooth 60fps everywhere except ec tunnel.

Its just about getting the right graphics settings, and making sure you're squeezing all the power out of your laptop as you can.

Oh, i can also have eq in a window and have multiple tabs open in google chrome, including video, and have little or no fps slowdown.

[Nuncio]

Running lower resolution obviously helps, as well as turning off the particle effects for spells.
My guess is you have the 945 or 965g chipset on that, eaither one, especially the 965, is still quite a bit more powerful than the one this person has, surprisingly. Literally 1/4 the pipelines and I think less than half the speed.

[jamsen]

OK, you've got an Intel GMA3150 graphics adapter and a hyperthreaded single core CPU.
The Intel GMA3150 isn't a great GPU by modern standards, but I would guess it's not too far from the state of graphics adapters in 1999-2000 time frame.

Hyperthreading allows the CPU to act as a dual core CPU in certain instances. The Titanium client that Project1999 uses absolutely sucks with multiple CPU systems. You can use command line options or EQEmuLauncher to restrict to using a single (logical) CPUs.

If you're using EQEmuLauncher, open options and see if the "use single CPU" option is checked. If not, check it and try running EQ again.

Otherwise you can use the following site to try launching eqgame.exe with a single CPU via command-line arguments:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/start-an-application-assigned-to-a-specific-cpu-in-windows-vista/

Hope this helps.

[gotrocks]

problem fixed?

if so, what'd you do?

[pharmakos]

problem mostly solved. i'd already done just about everything suggested in this thread awhile ago. what worked was turning the sky all the way off (had it set to simple before).

i tried all the advanced solutions first, but the moment i turned the sky off my frame rate skyrocketed. was like a breath of fresh air lol. i guess sometimes the simplest solution is the best. :)

[theaetatus]

Installing XP rather than 7 really helps on old computers. I'd definitely recommend getting a copy from somewhere and changing operating systems. Old my old laptop I inherited from my parents it has made a world of difference, from startup times to EQ framerate.

[falkun]

Try step 4 from the getting started guide. Can't remember if your atom is multi-core, but that might be part of the problem:

Step 4 - Optional WinEQ
Many users experience problems with proper CPU/Core Utilization or crashing which can be fixed by using WinEQ2. You can download this program from Lavishsoft (http://www.lavishsoft.com/downloads.php?p=wineq2).

[pharmakos]

i think EQPlayNice does that... EQPN was put out by the same people that do WinEQ, and WinEQ includes most EQPN functionality.

[hilltopsttry1]

Buy more ram